7 Tips for Reducing Stress When You Have Alzheimer’s Disease

Living with a chronic illness like Alzheimer’s disease can bring a lot of stress and anxiety, but as with all illnesses, stress can make symptoms worse and negatively impact overall health. It’s impossible to completely avoid it, but there are ways to better manage stressful situations, help to offset the effects, and improve quality of life.

1. Identify what causes your stress: Identifying the sources of your stress brings you one step closer to eliminating or reducing these situations. These triggers will be different for each Alzheimer’s patient but recognizing and avoiding potential triggers where possible, will help improve your mental health.

2. Address the stress triggers: Once you’ve established things you find most stressful, talk to your care providers, doctors and family to see what they can do to help you avoid those situations or make them less stressful.

3. Establish boundaries: Explain to others what your boundaries and limits are so they don’t inadvertently put you in stressful situations.

4. Find simple techiques to help calm you: Use stress relief tactics to help minimize anxiety-filled situations. This could include deep breathing, walking around, listening to music, watching television, meditation, working in your garden, having a bath…whatever helps to make you feel calmer.

5. Be open and honest: Talking to people about what your triggers are is vital. The more open and honest you are, the more people can do to ensure you’re protected as much as possible from potential triggers.

6. Remove yourself from stressful situations: In the majority of cases, you can remove yourself from a stressful situation. This may simply mean leaving the room if you’re feeling overwhelmed. If you are doing a task that you’re finding stressful like filling out forms, put it down and come back to it later.

7. Get plenty of rest: Sleeping well will naturally help you cope better with stressful situations. If you don’t get enough sleep you’ll be overtired and more likely to become upset. Don’t try and do too much, listen to your body and if you’re tired, stop and rest.

Alzheimer’s News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute or professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.

Marta graduated from Universidade Fernando Pessoa in Porto with a degree in Communication Sciences and a Masters degree in New Communication Technologies. She has experience in social media, worked with several media channels, and has also worked as a freelance photographer and a graphic artist for almost 10 years.